| BODIES: | ||
|---|---|---|
| Olympus OM-40 | This was my first camera and it has only been a few weeks ago that I bought a second body. The OM-40 still works fine and will serve as a complementary camera to the OM-4Ti in situations when there is no time to change lenses. | |
| Olympus OM-4Ti | This is Olympus' high end camera. It features multi spot metering, has full flash synchronisation capabilities, is made from titanium, and has scores of other great features. It's a great joy using this camera. | |
| LENSES: | ||
| Zuiko 24mm F2.8 | An excellent wide angle with an attractive F2.8 vs. the F3.5 of the 28mm lens. | |
| Zuiko 28mm F3.5 | My father's trusty 28mm lens, I have taken many pictures with this one. | |
| Zuiko 35mm F2.8 Shift | Buildings are one of my favourite subjects, and both the 24mm and the 28mm lenses I have easily lead to distorted perspective. This lens, while only having an effective 35mm lens' coverage can correct for perspective distortion. A truly marvellous lens, now let's hope someday I can afford the 24mm F3.5 Shift... | |
| Zuiko 50mm F1.8 | Currently I mostly use this lens when the available light is a problem (especially for indoor photography). However, with the extension tubes it can also be used for macro work (although the 50/3.5 Macro lens is better suited for that). The nice thing about this lens is that it gives very good quality pictures for little money, also, since it's a standard lens there is hardly any distorted perspective to take into account. | |
| Zuiko 50mm F3.5 Macro | This macro lens gives great 0.5x lifesize magnifications, and can be pushed well beyond that by combining it with the extension tubes. A really nice and extremely sharp lens for close-up work. | |
| Zuiko 35-70mm F4 | A very nice and versatile lens. It is sharp, and it covers the most often used range. Because of its versatile range, this is the lens that is most often found mounted on my camera. Hopefully someday I can afford the superior 35-80mm F2.8 zoom. | |
| Zuiko 65-200mm F4 | Another excellent zoomlens. It is razor sharp, and along with the 35-70 it is one of my favourite lenses. | |
| Zuiko 100mm F2 | This superbright medium telephoto lens is one of Olympus' finests. It gives razor sharp images, has great bokeh, excellent contrast and resolution, and it even has 1:5 macro capabilities. Combining this lens with extension tubes more or less "simulates" the highly praised 90/2 macro lens. I expect to use this lens very often for portraits, and it's already rapidly becoming one of my favourite lenses. | |
| Zuiko 135mm F2.8 | My father's 135mm. I hardly ever use it because of the 65-200mm and the 100mm lenses, however, it is lighter and has a bigger aperture than the zoom, and the bokeh is pretty good too. It also looks promising for usage with the extension rings, so I can stand back a little from the subject. | |
| Zuiko 300mm F4.5 | A magnificent super telephoto lens. Be prepared to see some wildlife pictures taken with this lens soon. | |
| FLASHES: | ||
| Olympus F280 flash | This is the flash that has been designed to fully exploit the OM-4Ti's full flash synchronisation capabilities. I didn't use to like flashes, but nowadays I actually use it a lot. This flash is especially good at giving fill flashes in its Super FP mode, allowing flash synchronisation in the 1/60th sec. to 1/2000th sec. range. | |
| Olympus T28 Macro Twin Flash 1 | This twin flash is probably Olympus' nicest macro flash available. It is highly versatile and can be used for many different lighting effects of subjects. The flash units mount to the front of the lens, so even for extreme close ups, the subjects will be properly illuminated. | |
| FILTERS: | ||
| UV/Haze | These filters are used to cut out the UV when shooting in situations with abundant sunlight, this eliminates the blueish veil that can sometimes be seen on pictures taken without a UV filter. In addition to eliminating UV light it also serves well as a means of protecting the lens' front element. | |
| Skylight 1-A | These filters are designed to eliminate UV light, albeit to a slightly lesser extent than the UV/Haze filters. In addition a slight warm tone is added to the picture. This is another excellent filter for protecting the lens' front element. | |
| Skylight 1-B | Like the Skylight 1-A filters, but with less of a warm tone. | |
| Hoya 80A | This filter has been designed to use a daylight film in artificial light (of 3200+ K), however, rather than using it for that purpose I (sometimes) use it to enhance the contrast on white structures. See the pictures: "Columns of time" and "Wrath of the Vesuvius" for examples. | |
| Hoya Vario Cross | A nifty filter that difracts light. When this filter is used, point light sources appear to have a star coming out of them. A nice filter, but it should not be used too often. See the picture: "Paris by night" for an example. | |
| MISCELLANEOUS: | ||
| Olympus 2-4 FS | An extremely bright focusing screen without micro prism and wedges. With this focusing screen the viewfinder remains bright even when using the 300/4.5 plus a 2x teleconverter. A world of difference with the standard 1-13 focusing screen. | |
| Olympus 2xA TC | The Olympus 2xA teleconverter is of course the best one to use with Zuiko lenses, I hope to use it regularly with the 135/2.8 and the 300/4.5 lenses. | |
| Vivitar 2x TC | A very compact and lightweight teleconverter. This is another recent arrival which I hope to be using frequently for beefing up the focal lengths of the telephoto lenses that do not fit on the Olympus 2xA teleconverter. | |
| Hama extension rings | This set consists of the 13mm, 21mm, and 31mm auto extension rings. When used with the 50mm F1.8 lens they give magnifications of +/- 0.25X lifesize to 1.4X lifesize. This allows for extremely close focusing. Again, this is yet another recent acquisition, hopefully I can take some nice macro shots with them soon. |
Obviously my gear is getting pretty complete, but there is always more to be desired. I would love to get some more super telephoto lenses, like the 500mm F8 catadioptrical lens. Furthermore, the 24mm F3.5 shift lens and the field of macro photography sound appealing. We will see what will happen, if I can get a good deal on the above mentioned items I might just be tempted enough to buy them. Until then, I will use the gear I currently use...
This page was made by Olaf Greve